Public Accounts committee  Mr. Chair, if I could add to that, we think that this needs continuous dialogue. It's not something you tick off and say we've done, for the reasons the Auditor General outlined. New public servants come in and new issues are raised, as well, that we need to talk through. That'

Public Accounts committee  There are some similarities. One is that the current one is codified. The new one will be codified as well. The new one will apply to a much broader group of organizations, including crown corporations and separate agencies, which are not covered by the current code. So a key dif

Public Accounts committee  Yes, you're quite correct in saying that the current code is a term and condition of employment. So departments can use the code for disciplinary purposes if they find evidence of wrongdoing by employees. We can identify instances when breaches of the code have resulted in discip

Public Accounts committee  We know that—

Public Accounts committee  I think it's a wise practice, a very good practice. We know that organizations have done this. In fact, the Treasury Board Secretariat itself has done one of these assessments. So there are good examples that can proliferate.

Public Accounts committee  In terms of the conflict of interest policy per se, as Madame d'Auray pointed out, one of the issues we are working on is the influence of social media and its impact on employees and their obligations given the pervasiveness of social media and the instant nature of communicatio

Public Accounts committee  As part of our values and ethics code we have a chapter on conflict of interest, so we provide direction on conflict of interest specifically. As well, as is noted in the Auditor General's report and is contained in this booklet, we set out the responsibilities of individual publ

Public Accounts committee  With the introduction of the values and ethics code in 2003, new public servants receive a letter of offer in which they're told they are subject to the values and ethics code and that they are personally responsible for identifying and disclosing any conflicts of interest they h

Public Accounts committee  Thank you for the question. The values and ethics code applies to federal employees, and that includes indeterminate employees, term employees, and casual employees. All of them are subject to the code. Contractors or consultants hired under contract are subject to the Treasury

Public Accounts committee  I don't know or haven't considered the situation you have presented there, so I'm not able to answer the question on what would happen if there were a legal proceeding under way, if somebody had made a complaint.

Public Accounts committee  We have, under the Public Servants Disclosure Protection Act, provisions that allow employees to disclose incidents of wrongdoing in the workplace. We report every year on the disclosures that have been made. So this is really quite an important provision that we have to reinforc

Public Accounts committee  Before the Public Servants Disclosure Protection Act and with the issuance of the 2003 values and ethics code, there was a provision for each department or agency to have a senior officer responsible for internal disclosure, which then allowed employees to make disclosures intern

Public Accounts committee  No, I haven't. As a personal question, no.

Public Accounts committee  I think it was passed in 2007.

Public Accounts committee  This is the act that came into effect in 2007.